Christian Bale gives up Batman role

Christian Bale will not be returning to the role of Batman – in a Justice League movie or any other film.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the British actor confirmed his trilogy of films as the caped crusader for Christopher Nolan between 2005's Batman Begins and last year's The Dark Knight Rises had sated his interest in playing the superhero.

"We were incredibly fortunate to get to make three. That's enough. Let's not get greedy," he said. "Chris always said he wanted to make it one film at a time. And we ended up sitting there looking at each other, saying 'We're about to make the third.' We never really knew if we were going to get to be there, but if that was how it was going to be, this was where it should end as well."

Bale said the time was now right for another man to play Batman on the big screen. "It's a torch that should be handed from one actor to another," he said. "So I enjoy looking forward to what somebody else will come up with."

A Justice League movie, which would see Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman uniting on the big screen, is in the works at studio Warner Bros following the $520m (£340m) box-office success of Superman reboot Man of Steel. It is expected, however, that a sequel to Man of Steel will move into production first.

US blog Latino Review set tongues wagging in the fanboy community in March by suggesting that Bale would return as Batman in Justice League, with Nolan overseeing the project in the same way he produced Man of Steel. Warners also produced the British director's Batman movies and owns screen rights to all DC comics superheroes. However, Bale said he was not aware of more than the most basic details regarding Justice League.

"I have no information, no knowledge about anything," he said. "I've literally not had a conversation with a living soul. I understand that they may be making a Justice League movie, that's it."